Karen

The Karen, also known as the Kayin, are a Sino-Tibetan ethnic group native to Kayin State in southeastern Burma. The third-largest ethnic group in the country (7% of the population), they were introduced to Christianity by Baptist missionaries after 1830 and converted in large numbers. In 1949, they formed the Karen National Union to fight for independence from a newly-independent Burma, and they were persecuted by the Bamar majority during the Burmese Civil War, leading to a refugee crisis and genocide.